Up to this point in the story, one of my favorite parts is
how Marji knows a lot, but understands so little. Marji is deeply invested
into issues that mostly concern adults, but doesn’t understand some basic
situations. As some other blogs have pointed out, there is the major example of
the death of the old man. She doesn’t understand what is so humorous about the
situation even though to the reader we see how comical the story was.
To me,
one of the most interesting thing is how I understand the logic of the
situation, but not the physical situation, and for Marji it is the exact
opposite. I think this contrast is what makes the book so readable, as the
reader makes connection Marji doesn’t, as well as Marji giving a historical
context the reader may not necessarily know. I know this connection wouldn’t
work for people who know a lot about The Islamic Revolution in Iran, in 1980,
but for our class It seems to work well.
Another
cool thing is how Marji not only knows a lot of historical context. You may
say that since this book is written from a future voice about Marji when she
was 10, that’s where she knows the information from. However, on page 12,
Marji talks about how she was kept interested by books and learned all about
people like Fidel Castro, and the young Vietnamese. Another interesting thing I
noticed was how she says her favorite book was a comic, and not only was it a
comic, but a comic about philosophers. To me this is kind of strange, but also
significant imagery. Like Marji’s character, the comic book about philosophers
is like a kid’s version of the deeper and more adult things in life. The
philosophers joking around is like Marji’s lack of understanding for nuance
and irony.
Not only
do the comic philosophers represent Marji at a young age, but also the
philosophical comic idea translates exactly to the format of the book. This
book has a deceptively simple comic style, with deep themes. Marji’s character
has an interesting relationship with the reader with seemingly alternate senses
of the situation. At least this seems to be true for most readers, who don’t
already know about Iran and its political history. I think her having a
favorite book which is a deep comic is self-relating to the style of the book
that she writes when she’s older and she looks back on these times. I think
these things make the book more interesting, and deep. Do you guys think that
the connection of her favorite book is a bit too far? I think it is plausible,
but I think we would need to have read the full story to back up all claims.
I don't think it's implausible to make this connection. As a very impressionable ten-year-old in a very tumultuous period in history, Marji seemingly clung to a book which interested her and had deep and important information, but in a style not generally associated with deepness and importance. Not only does it parallel, but that's exactly what we see in _Persepolis_. I'm not sure about everyone else, but this book does as well at teaching me history as anything else ever has, despite its simplistic and even childish physical appearance.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really think of that connection until you pointed it out, but I definitely think that her interest in comics about philosophers is kind of meta. It's also interesting how the story isn't directly from her 10-year old self but her older self reflecting on what happened earlier in her life. Her reflection slightly changes the memory each time and there's probably more insight. This method of the indirect telling of the story reminds me of "The Odyssey" with all the different ways the travels were heard by one person and then told through a different person's point of view.
ReplyDeleteNo I think drawing that kind of connection is just fine. Comic books are easier to pick up and understand. Her comic helps her learn about things she didn't really know of before, just like the graphic novel Persepolis is helping me learn all kinds of things about the revolution too. Pretty Meta stuff. As for Marji's character, I think one of the best ways to put it at the very moment is that she has lots of knowledge but minimal experiences. As we've seen in the past few chapters though, this is quickly changing, with more experiences probably coming in the near future.
ReplyDeleteWell, childhood experiences do end up affecting the rest of your life in a lot of ways. The comic book format was exactly what made complex philosophical concepts accessible and interesting to Marjane at a young age, so if she were also aiming to tell her story about the intricacies of the Iranian Revolution to a wide audience that included kids as young as she was when it all started, using that same format would only make sense. I don't think nine-year-old me would've finished Persepolis if it weren't so image-heavy, even if I didn't understand most of the implications of the events depicted. But neither did Marjane, the first time around.
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